Harry Potter: Time Guardian
by ConditionBlack
Summary: Harry Potter is picked up by Sephiria Arks, Chronos Time Guardian I at a young age. He requests to be strong, like her. She introduces him to the training of a Time Guardian. His plan to be a grow up and be a Number, however, may get derailed once he is invited to join Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.


Hadrian James Arks was many things. Human, survivor, determined, intelligent and assassin-in-training could all be used to describe him. He was also only eleven years old and on his way to a magical school called Hogwarts, having left a platform 9¾'s merely an hour ago. He was alone in the compartment, staring at the Scottish countryside contemplating his _heavily_ -influenced decision to leave his training for the Time Guardians to learn about this Magic he supposedly had.

He is currently wearing a black suit with a dark blue shirt and a black and purple checkered tie. The colors were to represent his adoptive parents, Sephiria Arks and Belze Rochefort. Sephiria always wore a purple suit top with gold shoulder pads that appeared to be from a Spanish solider from the early 1600's. She also wears a long, flowing purple skirt. It allows her to be very agile with her falchion orichalcum sword. She had dirty blonde hair down to her waist, crisp blue eyes, and in the center of her forehead was the roman numeral 1 with mirrored lighting bolts to the sides of it.

His adoptive father, Belze, was a very serious man who wore a dark blue trench coat with the same type of shoulder pads as the ones that Sephiria wore on it. He has a lighter shade of blonde for hair that he grew out to the middle of his back. He has cobalt blue eyes, and his numeral II was tattooed on the back of his left hand. Underneath the coat he usually wears a dark purple dress shirt, a checkered tie, and black dress slacks and a black vest. He carries an orichalcum spear he calls Gungnir.

Sephiria is the current Commander of the Chronos Time Guardians, while Belze is the Vice-Commander. Both had agreed to train Harry once Sephiria had been promoted to Chronos Time Guardian I. Shortly after her promotion. Belze had been granted to honor of being a Time Guardian.

Harry had gone through many horrible things already in his short life, but he was thankful for them as well. Without the vampire attack when he was 6, he would have been stuck with his blood relations, a vile family known as the Dursleys. He would never have been able to train to become one of the most efficient and dangerous Time Guardians that the Chronos Organization would ever see.

They had been on a business trip to Japan for his 'Uncles' company, when they were attacked by a thrall of a very powerful Dead Apostle vampire. The Dursley's had been slaughtered very quickly, the thrall taking them apart almost before they could scream. Harry backed away further down an alley, immediately recognizing that this thing was not human. He also knew that in a few short seconds, he would follow his relatives to a messy death. That did not mean that he was going to die without putting up a fight.

When the thrall turned on young Harry, it found a falchion piercing its heart. Chronos Eraser Arks had been in the area hunting down rumors of a vampire and was working in conjunction with a member of the Church's Burial Agency when she heard the screams from the thrall's previous victims. She destroyed the thrall, taking its head off as the Burial Agent had taught her, and was surprised to see a young, possibly 5 year old boy with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead staring at her. She recognized the look in his eyes, the look of an animal trapped.

She was impressed but the tyke, but had a job to do. She was about to leave when she heard him say "Take me with." She was somewhat shocked that a mere child would ask that of her.

"Kid, you don't know what that request entails," she told him, wondering why he would ask a random stranger that.

"Would be better than before." The boy countered. Arks was quickly becoming impressed by this tykes courage.

"What about your parents?" Arks looked pointedly at the remains and waited, but did not get an answer. "What's your name?"

"Harry." The boy told her.

"No last name?" She was curious about his introduction, and his so far stunning vocabulary.

"No. My real parents were supposedly drunks who died in a car crash; this thing," he pointed to his scar, "was caused by it." Arks started wondering about why she recognized the boy's scar, but for the life of her couldn't remember where she had heard of or seen it.

Against her minds logical arguments, she held out her hand, inviting the boy to approach her. He did so, and when he finally walked into the light, she could see that his clothes were ratty hand-me-downs, much too large for his frame. Once he made contact with her hand, she noticed that he seemed much too small for a five year old child.

It wasn't until she leaned down and offered him a piggy back ride that she noticed how light he truly was. _Did this family not feed him?_ She felt it preposterous that they would do so as the man's body was much the size of a small walrus, and the other boy's body was shaping up to match his father.

Arks shook her thoughts away, telling young Harry to hold on, and then quickly ran back to her hotel room, telling the boy to stay in the room and let no one in until she herself returned. Harry was fascinated by the television she had turned on for him. Once she had secured the wards she had around the room again, she left to meet with her Executor contact.

Harry was ecstatic to actually be allowed to watch television, instead of being thrown into the cupboard again. He barely noticed that the night had given way to the rising form of the sun until the bright morning sunlight reached his eyes. He stood up and pushed the button again to turn the TV off, debating if he should give into sleep, or wait until the lady from the night before returned.

However, sleep for the mal-nourished child soon became important. He climbed up on the bed, feeling like he barely closed his eyes, when he heard the door of the room open quietly. Reacting quickly, he silently rolled off the bed, and managed to get underneath it before the person entered the room. He noticed that the sun was now midway through its trek across the sky.

"Harry?" a soft voice called out to the room. Harry recognized the boots and voice of the other person in the room.

He slowly extracted himself from underneath the bed, and when he stood up, he noticed that the lady who had saved him appeared to be clutching her side, wincing a bit before she looked him in the eyes. She also had a few red stains around her side where her hand was resting.

"Ma'am, are you all right?" Harry asked, now worried about his new friend.

"I'll be fine after a shower and a good night's sleep. And please, do not call me ma'am. My name is Sephiria Arks."

Harry beamed, "It's a pretty name for a pretty lady." Sephiria could only look at the boy in shocked amusement as the small lady-killer smiled at her. She felt the corners of her mouth twitch upwards at the thought of the hearts this boy would break when he was older.

Harry watched as Sephiria shuffled in and made a call to someone on the room phone after she tampered with it and put a piece of hardware on the receiver. He listened into the call but acted as if he was watching the television.

"This is Arks. Reporting in that the situation in Kyoto has been resolved. Subject has been terminated. Line not secure enough for full debriefing. Will require paperwork for minor's passport, requesting permission to bring with to determine best course of action once debriefing has been completed.

…..

Acknowledged. Will bring minor in to protective custody. Thank you, sir."

Harry quickly focused all of his attention back on the screen, hearing Sephiria sit down on the bed next to him.

"What did you think of that phone call?" Sephiria asked him, smirking as Harry blanched and tried to stammer out that he hadn't been listening in. Harry saw her smirk, and quickly recognized that Sephiria was playing a joke on him.

"Harry, we are going to be leaving the country tonight to return to London. I have to meet up with some of my people, and you are going to have to tell them what happened. Also, you will need to decide what you want to do once we are done giving our report. I contacted a few people and found out your real name, and now know that you have no living relatives."

Harry was not surprised at finding that out. "What is my last name? Those _people_ I lived with never bothered to tell me it."

"According to my sources, your full name is Hadrian James Potter. You were born to James Charlus and Lily Marie Potter on July 31st, 1980. You were placed with your aunt and uncle around the time you were 15 months old because your parents had been murdered."

Harry reeled from the news and swayed a bit while sitting on the bed before Sephiria reached over and steadied him. "Are you going to be all right?" Sephiria was worried about the boy's reaction to the news.

"I think so. It is kind of an odd thing to have to get adjusted to, knowing that your parents were mur...dered and not drunks that died in a car crash. If… if I could, I would like to be trained to be like you." Sephiria mentally smirked as Harry stumbled with the unfamiliar word. Suddenly, Harry looked into her eyes, forcing Sephiria to see his determination and trying to will her to say yes to his question.

"Why do you want to become like me? It is not an easy road and will require years of dedication and training."

"I want to protect people, save them from the things like last night." Harry saw a smirk twist up the corners of her mouth a bit more; shattering the stoic look she usually wore.

"Get some rest Harry; we have to leave very early on a plane. One of my contacts will meet us there with your paperwork." Sephiria reached over with her free hand and rubbed the top of his head, mussing up his hair. Harry watched as she then proceeded to enter the bathroom to clean up.

Harry was brought out of his memories by the compartment door opening to reveal a girl with bushy brown hair and inquisitive brown eyes staring at him intently. _She's cute_ was the thought that ran through his mind as he stared at her. He could feel the blush start to stain his cheeks, before he quickly turned back to look out the window, hoping that she didn't see his reaction to her.

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12-year-old Hermione Granger opened the compartment door to find that this specific compartment had only one occupant. While she would normally find that strange, she could not voice a word of her question as the boy's piercing green eyes stared into her own brown ones from behind his glasses. She caught the faint reddening of his cheeks, before he quickly looked back out to the passing countryside. It was after he broke eye contact that Hermione was able to ask him her question for the shy boy behind her that she had been leading around.

"Excuse me, but Neville here has lost his toad, have you by chance seen it?" She quickly glanced over the smartly dressed boy that was by himself in the compartment.

When he looked back to her, she saw that the blush was gone and that his face displayed no emotion as he told them no. Her curiosity was piqued; this boy in front of her was like a puzzle; the air of confidence, the very neat and stylish suit, the sense that just behind his eyes was a predator waiting to strike. And, for the first time in her short life, she felt _this_ boy was a puzzle she wanted to solve.

She turned around quickly to Neville and told him that this was the last place they had not checked. The boy in the compartment, however, did point out to the two of them that when the train stopped, the train's compartments would more than likely be searched again.

Hermione could not fault that logic as Neville's shoulders slumped. She tried to comfort him, but was never very good at it having been bullied most of her life. She turned her head to look at the boy in the compartment, who nodded at them, seemingly reading her thoughts about letting them into the compartment. Hermione lead Neville to the empty bench across from the compartments only occupant.

Once they were situated, she could now get a better look at the boy sitting in front of her. He was now looking at her. Her eyes quickly took in his appearance. He had messy black hair, piercing green eyes, a black suit with a dark blue shirt and a black and purple checkered tie. She could see a black dress vest on underneath his suit top. He sat very straight, almost as if he had his back in a brace. As her eyes tried to memorize his face, she caught the lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead barely visible behind his bangs, immediately recognizing the only person to have survived the Killing Curse.

"I'm Hermione Granger, and this is Neville Longbottom," She immediately introduced the two of them.

The boy reached out his hand to shake hers, smiling as he did so. She grabbed it, her excitement spilling over. "I'm" was all he got to say before Hermione interrupted him, the excitement of meeting a wizarding celebrity causing her to start rambling.

"Harry Potter, the only known wizard to have survived the killing curse. Defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named when he was only one year old. He was taken away shortly after defeating You-Know-Who. After that, all records of him just stop, as if he had been spirited away." Immediately, the boy's eyes turned cold but his smile stayed. Hermione immediately stopped her motor-mouth as even Neville seemed to sit up straighter beside her.

"My name, Ms. Granger, is Hadrian Arks. I may have been once known as Harry Potter, but that boy died a long time ago. I took my adoptive mother's surname and have been raised by her since. Since the wizarding world couldn't bother to check up on their supposed savior at all throughout my life, I don't need to bother with being who they expect me to be, do I?" Hermione shook her head, too startled by the sudden change in his demeanor to do anything else.

"Good. As long as we understand that, we should be great friends!" Hadrian's sudden 180 turn in demeanor threw Hermione for a loop, disorienting her completely.

After a few minutes of silence and intense staring at him as he looked out the window, Hermione worked up her courage to ask "Hadrian, what do you mean that the wizarding world never checked up on you?"

"Oh, please, call me Harry. Hadrian only gets used in ceremonies or when my mother gets mad." His lightheartedness was a relief to the other two occupants as he looked back to them, allowing both of them to slip back and relax from the feelings he had just given them. "In response to your question, I was left on my aunt's doorstep almost immediately after my parents were killed. I was at that point treated like a slave; beaten, starved and forced to live in a tiny cupboard under the stairs.

All of that changed for me the day my uncle and aunt brought me on a business trip to Japan. They had intended to leave me in Kyoto to fend for myself, but just before they took off, they were slaughtered by a vampire." Hermione now regretted asking about this, forcing him to relive these experiences just because her curiosity couldn't be sated. "My mother, Sephiria Arks, got me away from the vampire while it was feeding, and I asked her to take me with her, instead of being left in an orphanage. Once we left Japan, she was promoted at her job and moved quickly to be able to adopt me into her family. I accepted her offer, and became Harry Arks, instead of Harry Potter."

Hermione's jaw dropped. She had been sure that Harry would be like that Malfoy boy a few carriages near the front; a stuck-up little prat with his head up his own arse. Considering how well the books talked about the Potter family and their money, she never thought that he would have been treated so differently than most of the other 'pure-blooded' children she had met so far.

"So," Hermione began, unsure of how to broach this new information, "What have you learned from your adoptive mother Harry?"

"Many things. She mainly instructed me in physical training, discipline, and as many subjects of knowledge that she felt I could handle. She is a slave-driver sometimes, and my dad is there to help her when needed."

Neville was the one who asked Hermione's next question, "Who is your father?"

"He is a very strict man named Belze. They aren't officially married or anything, but they work so well together they seem to read the others thoughts. All of my uncles seem to think they should finally tie the knot, but they are both too dedicated to their jobs to fill out the paperwork."

Hermione was beginning to get her sense of curiosity back now that Harry was getting back to discussing things he seemed to enjoy talking about. "Who are the others who make up your family then?"

"First, there's Uncle Jenos. He's funny, but he makes a lot of what mum and dad call lewd comments and has horrible pick-up lines. He tries to pick up every girl he meets, and it is funny to watch him fail." Hermione smirked at that description. "Uncle Kranz calls him a 'womanizer' I believe was the term. Speaking of Uncle Kranz, him and Uncle Baldorias are kind of crazy, so I don't spend too much time with them. Uncle Train is always solemn and quiet, but he agreed to teach as much as he could as I get older."

"Did you just say one of your uncle's names is Train? Train, like the one we are on?" Hermione asked, intrigued by the name of the supposed uncle of Harry. She had completely forgotten about the other boy in the compartment at this point, listening intently as Harry talked about his family.

"Yep. He seems cold, but he is actually really nice to talk to." Harry smiled at her.

She listened intently, her mind piecing together his hap-hazard family as he talked. He continued to tell them stories about his Uncle Jenos getting into silly situation after silly situation trying to drag Train, Nizer and even Harry into his schemes, usually ending with his uncle Jenos getting slapped. She and Neville laughed along with Harry as he shared these stories with them. However, as he continued telling them these stories, Hermione noticed that Harry never did mention what his family did for a living.

"Harry, what does your family do?" Hermione piped up after he told another story involving Jenos and Uncle Nizer.

"They help run an international cleaning conglomerate. All of my close family is really high-level district managers, if my understanding of the company hierarchy is right."

"What's the name of the company?" Hermione was now wondering if she knew of it.

"I don't remember the name of the entire group. It goes by many names in many countries. England, however, does not have a branch that I am aware of, but I hope to change that. The Japanese branch was named Jikan Gyokai, but I don't remember what it translates to." Hermione caught flicker of something behind his eyes, it almost appeared to be panic, but then he turned the discussion around on them, asking them about their families. Hermione stored that bit of info away, wondering why he would have worried about telling them about his parent's jobs.

She didn't bring it up the rest of the train ride as she and Harry worked on getting Neville to be a bit less shy around them.

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Nymphadora Tonks, (Tonks was what she preferred. She hated when people addressed her as Nymphadora) was currently sitting at the Hufflepuff table, waiting for the new first years to come in and get sorted. She was intrigued by the rumors surrounding this group of first years. It was rampant around the castle that this was the year that Harry Potter was going to be in school. She was not as ecstatic as some of the other girls who were hoping for a chance to become Lady Potter for his money, but she was curious to see what the Boy-Who-Lived looked and acted like. She had heard from her parents that James and Lily Potter had been killed, and no one had any idea where their son was currently. He had vanished from Godric's Hollow after that fateful night in October 1981. She remembered her mother being incredibly depressed after hearing the news about James and Lily, as they had been good friend's with the Tonks family.

The rest of the table continued to catch up, but Tonks was never really as close to her housemates as people thought. Her only close friend was second-year student Katie Bell, from Gryffindor. By proxy of Katie, she also hung out with Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet, two other third years that had stood up for Katie when she was getting picked on in her first year. All three girls played Quidditch on the Gryffindor team. Katie was a reserve Chaser, while Angelina and Alicia were starters.

Tonks may be the life of the party, but other people usually asked her to change her appearance to look like a famous singer or someone else they knew, and it got annoying by the second year. This year, her fourth, she was going to try to find more friends who would be all right with seeing the real Tonks, not the Tonks 'everyone' knows.

She was brought out of her own little pity party with the sound of a scuffle happening outside the Great Halls massive doors. She, as well as the rest of the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, being closest to the doors, turned to watch what may transpire.

They were not disappointed, and the doors burst open and a bigger first year was thrown through the doors over the shoulder of a smartly dressed, taller first year. The first year who had thrown the bigger one had bright emerald green eyes that seemed to glow with power behind his glasses.

He turned to her cousin, Malfoy ( _Draco_ , if Tonks remembered right) telling him "You and your friends are to never insult Ms. Granger or Mr. Longbottom again, or you will not live to realize the error of your ways." He told the stuck-up little prat while motioning to the boy on the floor, who Tonks recognized as a member of the Goyle family. Suit-boy's voice radiated power, and Tonks could swear she saw the air around the boy grow hazy.

With what appeared to be practiced ease, the boy straightened his tie, stepped on and over the Goyle boy, making sure to step on the boy's chest as he walked to the center of the room. The boy in the suit was quickly followed by a girl with bushy brown hair and another boy who appeared to have his eyes glued to the floor. Professor McGonagall was frozen by the display near the doors with the other first years. Tonks was definitely entertained by this boy, but then noticed that he was not wearing the customary robes and that he was glancing everywhere around the room, trying to see everything. She remembered her own marvel at Hogwarts when she first came to the castle, thinking that that was what the boy was looking around for.

She reminisced about her experience until his eyes caught hers. She could feel his power as he stared at her. Time seemed to stop for them, and Tonks could not look away from the predator she was now staring at. She saw many things reflected there, loneliness, pain, but strength to overcome and survive radiated out. She could empathize with this boy, yet, at the same time, couldn't. His eyes looked too much like her father's when he was lost in memories of the last war he had been in as part of a Muggle SAS unit.

Time restarted as he looked away and continued leading the group of first years. Tonks slowly let out her breath as Professor Snape seemed to teleport in front of the boy.

"100 points from whatever house you get sorted into boy, and detentions for the rest of the month." Tonks could see a maniacal glee in his eyes, almost as if Professor Snape had a vendetta against this first year.

"No." The boy told him. Tonks watched on, afraid for the first year but also silently enjoying someone talking back to the Potions Master. "That boy," He pointed to Draco, still seemingly petrified near the doors, "insulted my friends and told me that he was superior to them, and when I rebuffed him, that idiot," he pointed to a still wheezing Goyle, "decided it would be a good idea to punch me in the back, a cowardly way to issue a duel. Therefore, I decided to help these fools understand that I am not to be trifled with." The boy stood ramrod straight, staring the Potions Professor in the face.

During his mini-speech, Snape seemed to change colors ranging from tomato red to a dark purple. Tonks was impressed by this first year, not even sorted and already a trouble maker. Bonus points to the firstie for increasing Snape's blood pressure.

"Professor Snape," The ancient Headmaster, Dumbledore, stood up. All eyes turned to him. "The lad makes a valid point. We can discuss his punishment later with him. Minerva! Please bring the other children in to get them sorted." The Deputy Headmistress shook herself to clear her shock, and then walked after the three first years, prompting the rest of the kids to follow. Goyle was picked up off the floor by the Crabbe boy, and they followed through to fill the center of the room, standing on the far end of the line of students, trying to put as much distance between suit-boy and them as possible . Snape seemed to be frozen in place after being reprimanded. Tonks was pretty impressed with the young boy who had managed to create a stir before he was even sorted into a house.

Nothing more was said about it. Tonks thought that was weird, but zoned out as the group was sorted, until "Potter, Harry!" was called out by the Head of Gryffindor house. No firstie stepped up; they each looked towards the others as they tried to figure out where Harry Potter was. Tonks kept her eyes on the boy in the suit, watching as he glared at Dumbledore for some reason.

Minerva McGonagall called out Harry Potter's name once more, but did not wait long after no one stepped forward again. Tonks watched as the firstie that had her attention looked around the room once more, seeming to take in everyone after getting through glaring at Dumbledore, before his eyes reached hers again. This time, however, was just a quick scan. Tonks noticed that as his head turned, there was a scar that was mainly hidden by his black bangs. A scar shaped like a lightning bolt.

 _Merlin! That_ IS _Harry Potter! Why didn't he go to get sorted?_ Tonks was confused, but decided to wait out the rest of the names. She glanced over to Katie, noticing that she had seen the scar as well from the look of shock on her face.

Soon, all names were called, but the boy was still standing in the middle. The bushy-haired girl and the shy boy that had walked in with him were both currently sorted into Hufflepuff; both seemed to be worried for their friend. They had taken seats a few people down from Tonks herself.

McGonagall called out, "Excuse me child, I didn't call your name, yet there is no one else listed. May I please get it from you to correct our ledgers?" Tonks could almost swear that McGonagall acted like she knew this kid, just like Snape seemed to.

The boy seemed to straighten up once more, his arms reaching around his back and clasping his hands together. He stood at a relaxed muggle military position. "My name is Harry Arks. I can see that your record keeping is not up to snuff, as I am certain that my paperwork was sent back with the correct information on it. That doesn't bode well for me, and tells me that maybe I made a mistake coming here." He glared back to Dumbledore, who stood up and announced, "There is no record of a Harry Arks ever being sent an owl about Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. However, we do have a record of a Harry Potter receiving one."

"Well, that is unacceptable. My mother was hoping that I would be able to learn more about my magic here, but apparently that was a mistake. Considering how I was left on Privet Drive, the British magical world already is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. I suppose I will go back to being taught by my muggle parents." The boy did a quick about-face and started to walk out of the castle. Tonks was flabbergasted, Harry Potter, Arks, was turning down an education at Hogwarts. What had the old man done to make this boy so angry?

She heard Professor McGonagall call out, "Mr. Arks, please wait a moment!" Harry stopped, not turning around.

"I apologize for the mix up; we shall immediately correct the ledgers for your name." Tonks watched as McGonagall also glared at Dumbledore.

 _All right, first Harry, and now the head of Gryffindor house? What has the old man done?_ Tonks was still somewhat shocked at their hostility to the Headmaster.

She watched as Harry turned around and walked up to the stool. The hat was placed on his head. For a brief second, Tonks saw his iris and pupil turn into a mirror-like color, before they turned back to their normal emerald color.

 _Another Metamorph? Harry Potter, Arks, is a metamorph, like me? THIS IS AWESOME!_ Tonks decided to help the young lad train his shape-shifting abilities. She saw his face contort in rage for a brief second as well, and his visage seemed to freeze her again. She began to wonder exactly what the hat was saying to him.

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Harry heard the voice in his head. _Welcome, young Hadrian, to Hogwarts. It is my job to sort you into an appropriate house, so if you could please lower your mental shields so I could make an appropriate decision based on your life experiences to this date. I can only get flashes of different times and people, not enough to make a valid choice for you._

Harry's anger caused him to lose control of his Mystic Eyes for a brief second, changing them from his normal green to a silver mirror color. He quickly reined in the feeling, seeing the lines disappear as the glasses worked as they should again.

 _No. You are allowed access to only what you have seen today on the train ride over. I will not lower my shields further to allow an unknown entity into my mind. It also appears I will need to continue to work on my mental barriers, it you can get all of that from me._

 _Interesting. Caution is a rare trait among children Mr. Arks. And even from only the bit you are allowing me access to, you would do well in any of the four houses. Slytherin would be good as you are quite a cunning one, Ravenclaw for your obvious intelligence, yet Gryffindor seems to be the best bet, though._

 _NO! I do not need to be in the house of the brave. I will remain inconspicuous during my time here._

 _Strike from the shadows type, huh? Your fierce loyalty to those two and your extended family makes me believe that Hufflepuff would indeed be the best house for you now._

 _Perfect. From what I know of the house, no one will expect me to do anything. Perfect way to hide. Thank you, good sir._ Harry heard the hat shout out "HUFFLEPUFF!" and waited for Professor McGonagall to remove the hat. He was mentally berating himself for having holes in his occulumency shields. He would need to work on them throughout the year. He could not let his past and future training be seen by anyone at Hogwarts.

As Harry continued his thoughts, he noticed that the entire great hall appeared to be silent at this proclamation. Noticing that Professor McGonagall had not removed the Sorting Hat, he hopped off the stool, setting the hat in his place, and then began to walk towards his new housemates, catching the look of shock on everyone's face. He noticed the crest of Hufflepuff house appear on his suit's left lapel.

It stayed silent until he sat down at the table next to Hermione that the rest of the Hufflepuff's broke out in to cheers while the Gryffindor table all looked as if they had been punched in the stomach. Amidst the cheering, Harry asked Hermione, "Why is everyone so shocked?"

"Well, I read that both of your parents were in Gryffindor, so I believe that they are shocked that you did not go there as well."

"Of course I wouldn't! I told the hat where I wanted to go, argued with it for a bit then went to the house where my friends were at." Harry smiled at her.

"You _argued_ with the Sorting Hat?" Hermione whispered, not quite sure she heard him right.

"Yep. And I can be pretty persuasive when I want to be." Harry smirked at her, seemingly proud of what he had done.

They chatted a bit as the night carried on. Harry had caught the attention of an older girl, Nymphadora Tonks, and another red-headed girl that was sorted before him, Susan Bones, by telling stories about his uncles and family. Harry was glad to have made friends with these three pretty girls and the shy boy.

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Harry and his friends had settled into a routine. Harry himself was up an hour before sunrise, his normal workout routine lasting until almost a half an hour before breakfast. Hermione, Neville, Susan and eventually Tonks got curious about his routine, so they asked to watch him train. He agreed, but on the days that they were bored and watched him, he kept to running around the grounds and martial arts. He did not practice with his training o-katana for fear of scaring them. The wooden sword was a total of 50 inches in length, a bit larger than a normal o-katana, but as Harry was already tall for his age, the Elders and Sephiria decided to train him with a replica of the weapon they were going to craft for him once he was given full Number status.

Harry was cornered one afternoon by Tonks and asked if he was a metamorphagus. After Tonks explained it, he denied it, but Tonks would not let it go.

"Then how do you explain your eyes?" Tonks and Harry were alone in the corridor at this point. The other three had already retreated to the Hufflepuff common room to work on homework.

"What about them? They're green…" Harry trailed off, schooling his panic and still not quite sure how Tonks could know about his Mystic Eyes.

"When you were sorted, your eyes changed for about half a second, then reverted back to normal." Harry mentally sighed, worried she might know about the actual abilities of his Eyes.

"Tonks, I don't know if I am a metamorph. I honestly would have no clue how to go about testing to see if I am anyway." Harry quickly deduced that Tonks was only excited because she must be a metamorph, which is why she was so excited to see that he could change his eyes.

"That's ok. I, the great, powerful, and strikingly beautiful metamorph Tonks, shall show you how to start." Harry smiled, the older girl slowly getting him to warm up around her. Harry noticed that she seemed to hang around him and Hermione a bit more than usual lately.

 _Ah. She must be worried about the apparently_ normal _discrimination that metamorphs go through._ Harry mentally scoffed at the wizarding world's prejudices, but then got curious, wondering if the Tonks in front of him was the 'true' Tonks, or one of her own creation.

"Tonks," She stopped her grandstanding, "Don't take this the wrong way, but I am curious if the Tonks I am looking at is the actual Tonks, or someone you made."

Tonks's eyes started to mist up. Harry's ingrained reaction with his discipline training at having insulted someone was to quickly bend over at the waist, back ramrod straight, arms stuck to his side in a formal bow. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to offend you Tonks!" He told her. Sephiria trained him extensively in the ways of tradition, and since she was mainly raised in Japan, the teachings of discipline carried over to Harry.

His bow shocked Tonks. "You didn't offend me, Harry. However, you are the first person I have ever met who asked to see the real me, instead of asking if I can change to look like someone else."

Harry raised his head, slowly standing back up as he asked, "Surely someone asked before me?"

Tonks head shaking no made Harry tell her, "Wow. I had a low opinion of the British magical world before I arrived, yet the discrimination I have been seeing is making that opinion even lower." His statement shocked Tonks. Seeing her look at him, he summarized what he had told Hermione and Neville the day of the train ride in.

Tonks was laughing as Harry got her to the entrance for Hufflepuff common room, leading her in to see Neville, Susan and Hermione working on Professor Snape's potion essay. Harry and Tonks sat down with them, discussing different ingredient's properties. Tonks shortly went to her dorm to get her own homework to bring down and work on; helping them all when they reached something they were unsure of.

After the study session, Tonks worked on teaching Harry how to change his shape. After everyone else except for the five friends had gone to bed three hours later, Harry managed to change his hair to a dull silver color, while Tonks hair would change color in reference to her mood. He got a round of applause from his friends. He smiled, already thinking about how he could use this to his advantage when he would be promoted to full Time Guardian status.

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September gave way to October, and eventually came around to All Hollows Eve. Harry, having never really celebrated a Halloween before, soon had his friends trying to explain the fun they could have during the celebrations. Harry knew the significance of the holiday in relation to the Pagans, and could somewhat understand the need to celebrate, as originally it was a night that bonfires and loud parties were put on to keep the spirits of the dead away from the early settlements.

When Halloween arrived, Neville, Tonks, Susan and Hermione were ecstatic to hopefully make Harry begin to let his hair down with it being a holiday. They all noticed that while he was smiling and able to make other's laugh, he never truly loosened up, even around them. Harry, however, pointed out to them that he usually visited his birth parents grave that he and Sephiria had made after they had researched what had happened to them. Harry did not realize the faux pas he made telling them this. His friends had forgotten that to Harry, Halloween was a day of mourning for James and Lily Potter.

Neville found it odd that morning when Harry was kneeling in front of a picture he had of them, incense sticks lit in front, slowly burning away as the small bit of smoke trailed in front of them. Harry appeared to be in a trance, and Neville did not want to shake him to knock him out of it. Neville quickly dressed and went down to the common room, seeing Hermione, Tonks and Susan waiting for Harry to start his morning routine. Justin Finch-Fletchley, another Hufflepuff in their year, was telling the three girls something, before he walked out.

All of them looked disheartened by whatever Justin had said. Neville walked over to them and asked, "What did Justin say?"

"He said that Harry is in a trance upstairs, kneeling in front of a picture of his parents with incense sticks burning." Tonks answered, worried for their friend.

Hermione, having been more than curious about Harry lately, researched a few of the different customs that he told them he followed. She told the other three "He's mourning them and meditating, trying to center himself. He told us that his mother, Sephiria, practices some traditions of the Shinto faith and has passed them on to him. Meditation is a way to get closer to the true path and free themselves of worldly desires."

"And it is also a great way to clear your mind of any troubles you may think you have!" Harry walked down the stairs to them. Tonks mentally breathed a sigh of relief as she walked over to him. Her arms darted out and grabbed him in a headlock, messing his mop of hair up as she knuckled his head

"Man, Justin had us worried for nothing!" She exclaimed, smirking as Harry merely allowed her to give him the noogie.

Once they were sure Harry was all right, all of them headed to the Great Hall for breakfast, never knowing the trouble that awaited them that night.

The day progressed as normal, until their Charms class, when the prat from Gryffindor, Ron Weasel-something, made disparaging comments about Hermione when she tried to help him. Harry and Neville were not near her at the time the comments were made, or Harry's fist would have implanted the Weasel's teeth into the back of his throat, regardless of house points and detentions. They were all at dinner, wondering where their friend was when Tonks told them that Hermione was in the girls bathroom crying.

"What happened?" Harry immediately zeroed in on her, letting his child's exterior slip partially to his Numbered self, the cool logic overriding his jovial attitude from seconds before.

"That idiot over in Gryffindor there," Tonks pointed out the first-year red-head shoveling food into his face, "Made some nasty comments to Hermione, and she has been inconsolable in the girls bathroom ever since. Susan and I tried to get her out, but she wouldn't leave the stall."

Harry's anger flared for a brief moment before he got it under control. He stood up, and began to walk over towards the Gryffindor table to verbally castrate the red head. He saw that his head of house, Professor Pomona Sprout, and head of Gryffindor house, Professor Minerva McGonagall, were watching him as he methodically walked towards the Gryffindor table in a almost straight line for Ronald Weasel.

He sat down sideways on the bench to stare at the red head that seemed to be ignoring him. Harry noticed that the rest of the table seemed to quiet down, and two older red-heads, probably this boy's brothers by their looks, started to watch him as he continued to stare at the gluttonous child.

"Apparently, my warning to Malfoy and company wasn't enough to point out to you that I don't take kindly to insults about my friends Weasel." Only now, at the tundra in his voice, did the red-head finally begin to process that Harry was there. Ron slowly turned to look at the boy next to him, only to see the visage of a wraith staring back at him. He was just about to scream when Harry clamped his hand over his mouth. Just before Harry could give him a tongue-lashing, the doors to the Great Hall burst open, and Professor Quirell, the stuttering Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, rushed in.

"TROLL! TROLL IN THE DUNGEONS! Just thought you should know." He shouted just before he fainted dramatically to the floor. Harry immediately knew he was faking the act, but could not ascertain why this man, in particular, would do so. He decided then and there that Quirell was to be watched as Harry could not shake the feeling that there was something fundamentally wrong with the teacher.

 _Oh no, Hermione!_ Harry thought as Dumbledore shouted out to have the Prefects take everyone to their dorms. Harry, in the furor that followed as students clambered to their feet, grabbed the back of the Weasel's head and smashed it into the plate of food. Just as the misaligned nose started to bleed, Harry pulled out his wand and repaired the damage to the shock of the red head before he could cry out.

"If she is injured in anyway, I will return and even the nine levels of Hell will pale in comparison to the vengeance I will rain down upon you." Harry huffed as he stood up and strode over to the rest of his classmates. Susan and Tonks were shocked as they had continued to watch the interaction between Harry and the Weasel. Harry did not catch the stunned looks from Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, and Alicia Spinnet as he walked back to the Hufflepuff table.

"Once we are out of the Hall, I am going to get Hermione." The other three were about to protest him going, when he said, "Are you in or out?" He got confirmation nods from his friends, showing him their desire to help her.

They hung around the back of the group as they were lead back to the dorm. They reached a T in the hallway, and while the others turned to the left, Harry and the others branched right. Tonks told Harry how to get there, and with Harry's training, he eventually left them behind by a wide margin, not noticing that they were unable to keep up with him.

As he turned the corner, he heard the sound of heavy footsteps, followed by a very loud smash. Harry heard Hermione scream, and for the first time in his life, understood what it meant when someone's blood ran cold. He bolted to the destroyed door of the bathroom, hoping that she was still alive.

Relief flooded him as he saw her cowering in the corner, and then was quickly replaced with anger at the massive humanoid beast as it lumbered towards his friend. He picked up a chunk of debris, and threw it at the troll's head. He watched it connect and bounce off, but the troll still advanced on her.

Harry's mind surged with adrenaline, slowing down everything he was seeing. He picked up another piece of debris. In slow motion, the troll raised its club to crush his friend. He could feel his mental limiters get switched off, the training and genetic manipulation done to him allowing his instincts to take over. He threw the piece of rock again, and as the granite connected and turned to dust from the force of the throw, the troll stopped raising the club, for a tiny bit. Harry saw blood starting to trickle down the back of its head from the force of the blow.

In that half of a second that the troll hesitated, Harry reached out with his right hand, unconsciously tapping into his magic core and allowing the excess to bleed through his magical circuits as he willed Hermione to get to him. She disappeared with a loud _CRACK_ , and reappeared right next to him, still screaming. He caught her in his right arm, holding her up, realizing that with Hermione in the condition she was in, they would never be able to out run the giant that now was focusing on him.

He heard the others reach the doorway, and his plan was formed immediately. He picked Hermione up with his right arm wrapped around her waist, her screaming ending abruptly as he lifted her and walked backwards towards a huffing and puffing Susan, Tonks and Neville, his wand in his left hand in an instant and pointing at the troll.

"Get back to the common room, and wait for me there. I will keep this thing busy while you make your escape." He saw them begin to protest as the troll took another lumbering step towards them. "FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, GET OUT OF HERE!" He thundered at them. He turned towards them, slowly pulling off his glasses and putting them in his inside jacket pocket as he quickly looked each of them in the eyes.

Tonks was going to help her young friend, but seeing his eyes change to his strange mirror-like ones had Tonks grabbing Hermione and pushing Neville and Susan towards the hallway. She couldn't explain why she was listening to Harry as if he were a Professor, but something in his gaze told her that he was now in no mood to listen to her insubordination.

"Hurry back Harry, and good luck." Tonks said, her fear cracking her voice near the end as she started shoving their other friends back to the common room. Hermione was crying for her first friend, almost unable to stay on her feet. Tonks and Susan worked on getting Hermione quickly back to the Hufflepuff common room with Neville leading them, all three hoping that their friend would be all right.

Once they managed to reach the common room, the entire house was lounging around, hoping for news. Professor Sprout was also there, rushing them as they entered.

"Where have you three been? Where's Mr. Arks?" She demanded, clearly not pleased at her students.

Tonks quickly thought up a plausible excuse. "Ma'am, Harry left us to give us time to get away from the troll. Hermione had been in the bathroom crying after Ron Weasley insulted her, and after Professor Quirell announced that there was a troll, Harry immediately headed out to get Hermione. We couldn't let him go alone, and after we got to her, the troll found us. Harry distracted it and got it away from us so we could get back to the common room. Please Ma'am, please help Harry!" Tonks told mostly the truth, glossing over that Harry demanded that they get out of the area while he purposely held it off.

Professor Sprout's face drained of color to a very pale complexion. "No one is to leave the common room until the troll is cleared from the castle. Prefects, make sure of it." She quickly went to the door and ran out to find her wayward student who may have just given his life to protect his friends.

Tonks and Susan maneuvered Hermione to one of the couches. Tonks pulled Hermione and Susan into a hug, all of them taking comfort in the others as they worried about their friend.

After an hour and a half, Hermione had cried herself to sleep, and the common room had been mainly cleared. The Prefects asked Tonks to keep on eye on the door while they retired for the evening. Neville was starting to nod off, and Tonks assured him she would keep an eye out for Harry. He thanked her and then slowly walked to the dormitory he shared with Harry, giving Tonks and Susan one last pointed look. She nodded, and he shut the door behind him.

Tonks sat there for an unknown amount of time as she rocked the younger girls. She almost missed the sound of the door opening it was so quiet. She whipped her head around, to see Harry limping into the room, his right arm held protectively to his side. She also saw that his hair was dull silver, instead of his usual black. His eyes still had their mirror quality as he glanced at her.

"Damn. I was hoping to get here and everyone would be asleep." He muttered as he unbuttoned his jacket, reaching in with his left hand and pulling out his glasses.

Once they were on, Tonks watched as his eyes slowly faded back to their vibrant green. She gently shook Hermione and Susan awake as Harry limped over to the couch facing them. However, with his back to them, he pulled off his jacket, as well as the vest and began to unbutton his blue dress shirt before the three girls could even process what was happening.

"Harry! What are you doing?! Are you all right?" Hermione was shocked to see her friend in front of her as she had expected him to not come back and was now appearing to strip in front of them. Her blush began to heat up her face as her friend revealed himself to them.

"Yes, Hermione, I am fine. Well, somewhat fine. I am removing the articles of clothing that are preventing me from assessing the damage I have sustained." Harry removed the tie, draping it over the vest, and eventually the shirt followed as well.

Tonks, Hermione and Susan all gasped at the knotted lines of flesh from scars long since healed on his back. Harry turned around slowly, making his way down to the couch to make the trip as pain free as possible. Hermione caught that Harry was wearing a black identity disk with some writing etched into it. All three girls saw the four diagonal scars that ran from the middle of his left shoulder and ended just below the right side of his sternum. Scars that to the girls resembled claw marks. Once Harry was seated, he started looking himself over, starting at his right shoulder. That was when the three girls saw the strange way it sat in its socket.

Hermione turned a bit green, while Susan hissed to him, "Harry, why didn't you go to the hospital wing and have Madam Pomfrey fix you up?"

Without missing a beat, he hissed back at her "Because I really don't want to get in trouble for saving my friend." He grabbed the upper part of his arm, quickly pulling it out until the three girls heard a snap as the joint was reset. "And, once I correct these issues, I'll be fine in a few days." He bent down, his right arm no longer as restricted as before, and repeated the process on his left knee.

Hermione was not used to seeing someone so badly hurt, and wanted to run out and get the healer immediately to see to her friend. She jumped a bit as his knee popped, causing him to hiss and settle back into the couch. He began to poke around his ribs, grimacing at a few of them, and hissing more at another two. He reached behind him, and started to put on his dress shirt again. He had buttoned up all but the top two buttons before he leaned back again, relaxing into the couch.

Susan had talked to her aunt Amelia about her job, and was not as put out by what Harry was doing as the other two. She hesitantly asked him about how badly he had been hurt. He shrugged with his left shoulder, "Dislocated shoulder and knee, a few bruised ribs and a couple of cracked ones."

"And you got all the way back here with those injuries?" Tonks hair turned a vibrant red as her anger at her young friend bubbled up.

"Yep. Not easy, but doable." Harry flippantly replied, drawing the ire of his friends at his supposedly laissez-faire attitude to being injured so severely.

"What happened to the troll?" She pressed. Hermione's green face was slowing turning to a pale one. Susan's complexion, however, stayed at very pale.

"We argued for a bit, then I persuaded it to stop what it was doing. No big deal." Harry glanced at the common room door as the three girls looked to each other, worried that their friend may have been injured much worse than he had told them.

"Now, what did you tell Professor Sprout when she was here?" Tonks was somewhat shocked out of her anger that this was his next question.

Susan was the one who grudgingly explained the story for Harry that Tonks had given to the Professor. "Good. That should work for now."

Tonks then noticed that Harry's hair had reverted back to his black color. _His eyes, ask about his eyes,_ she thought to herself. "Harry, how can your eyes change like they do? That is not a metamorphagus thing, to completely change the pupil to be something else."

"It has to be," before Harry could complete his statement, Tonks interrupted him.

"No. It's not. I researched a lot about my abilities, and changing your eyes like that is not possible. The color can be done, but not what you do. Also, they were changed as you walked in until you put your glasses on. That should have no effect on your abilities Harry."

Harry could almost see the question marks over Hermione's and Susan's heads. He sighed, worried about what to tell them. He wasn't sure if telling them would be a good idea, considering the last time someone found out about them. He did not think that these three would do what his other friend had done, but his past experiences had taught him to be wary.

He looked down to the floor and sighed, unsure of where to start, but decided that since they would keep pestering him about it, and potentially going to someone in charge about it and asking them, bringing scrutiny to his private life, he began, terrified that he may lose his only friends when they called him a freak because of his eyes. "about a year ago, I was hurt, badly." He glanced back up, seeing that he had their attention. Unconsciously, he began to rub the scars on his shoulder, the phantom pain starting to return as he remembered that night he had been attacked and managed to wound a Dead Apostle Vampire for the first time.

He reached up, taking off his glasses and handed them to Tonks, watching as the lines of Death appeared on everything in the room. Hermione held her hand to her mouth in shock, seeing for the first time the mirror eyes he had without the Mystic Eye Killer glasses on. Susan could only stare at him as his eyes reflected back at her.

"Put the glasses on." Tonks did as he asked, and noticed that there was no difference with them on or off. He motioned to Hermione, and had her put them on. She noticed the same thing, before handing them to Susan, who then gave them back to Harry, confused as to why he would have glasses that have no prescription. "These are Mystic Eye Killer glasses. I got them from a family friend of my father. Her name is Aoi Aozaki, also known as The Blue Sorceress.

After the accident, I hovered between dead and alive for a few weeks before I was pronounced stable. When I awoke, I could see lines on everything. I told my mom this, and she immediately had someone start researching it. The Doctor's all thought I was crazy, but after demonstrating to my mom what I could do with them, she forcibly had the doctor's retired. She then began to ask around to her associates." Hermione was getting more and more impressed with the decisiveness of Harry's mother, Sephiria.

"What can your eyes allow you to do?" Tonks was now fascinated by her younger friend's story, yet she knew that he was also not telling the three of them the entire story; she had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with the claw marks on his shoulder.

"The lines I see are a representation of Death. If I can sever the lines, the thing dies. For example," He reached out to a blank scroll on the table next to the couch. Using his fingernail, he traced along one of the lines on the scroll. When he reached the halfway point in the line, the scroll shattered into 4 pieces. The girl's mouths dropped in shock.

"From the small bit about the eyes we could find, they are called _Chokushi no Magan_ in Japanese. Literally translated, they are called the Mystic Eyes of Direct Death. We have only found a few old texts that rumored them. And, supposedly, because of the strain of the eyes, no human is supposed to have them." The girls all had worried expressions on their faces at that statement. Harry explained further, "Think of your brain like a circuit. The more power you push through it, the faster it overloads until it eventually burns out. That is what theoretically happens if I use them for too long or try to see beyond death."

"And, you used these, these Mystic Eyes, to fight the Troll?" Hermione managed to ask.

"Yes. It was not easy, but I managed to get one of its major lines and ended the fight." Harry glanced back down to the floor, putting the glasses back on, hoping that they would take his next request seriously.

"Girls, if, if you do not wish to be my friends anymore because of this, I would understand. If that is the case, please, please keep quiet about my eyes? I just want to be normal, but I'll never have the chance if word of these eyes gets out." Harry, for the first time since meeting Sephiria, was putting his future into someone else's hands. Another first for Harry was the fear of rejection, the rejection of his first close friends.

He kept his head down, his hands wringing together, until he sensed the three of them stand up. His shoulders slumped, as if defeated, until he felt them sit back down next to him. Hermione wrapped her arms around his chest, mindful of the knitting ribs, while Tonks grabbed his right hand. Susan kneeled down in front of him to look into his eyes.

"Harry, you are a very brave young man, risking your life for your friends. I am glad that I can count myself amongst your many friends." Harry snorted at Hermione's _many friends_ comment. Tonks gave him a questioning look that Hermione caught from the other side of Harry.

"Hermione's right. Why would we think less of you for something beyond your control? You were given a gift, and now you use it to help people." Tonks playfully tapped one of his ribs, getting him to hiss.

"Honestly, the last time a 'friend' found out about my eyes, they refused to speak to me and eventually got my entire class to turn against me. Mom transferred me out of the school to get me away from the other people." Harry remembered the older Chronos inductees that, as they were trained with him, would antagnoize the freak and his eyes until he had beat one of them up bad enough to put him in the hospital. Belze had contacted Aoi and explained his son's abilities to her. Aoi had sent the glasses immediately upon finding the few scraps of info she gave them about it.

"Well, you didn't ridicule me for being a Metamorph." Tonks pointed out.

"Nor me for being bossy." Hermione chimed in. Susan held his left hand with a small smile but said nothing.

"Thanks." Harry, for the first time since walking in the room, had a genuine smile on his face. "Now, I am sore, and need to sleep to recover. Thankfully, it's a Friday, which means I may be out most of the day tomorrow." The three girls let him grab up his clothes, then walked to his dorm, his limping a bit less noticeable already.

The three shared a glance, all thinking very similar thoughts about their 'friend' and how he looked without his shirt. However, Tonks lamented about her age compared to Hermione and Susan, Hermione lamented about her looks compared to Susan and Tonks, while Susan lamented her shyness compared to Tonks and Hermione.

By Monday, the rumors spread around the school that some type of other monster had gotten in and killed the troll. Harry told his head of house and the Headmaster that he had gotten the troll's attention, and then ran away as fast as he could; making sure the troll was completely focused on him. Once he was sure his friends would be safe, he then proceeded to outrun the troll and managed to get back to the Hufflepuff common room. Harry did not realize what it meant when he cut the lines of the troll, but he had managed to destroy it by cutting through its point of Death, erasing it completely from existence. With that done, there was no body for the Professor's to find. Most came to the conclusion that the troll must have wandered out on its own after Harry walked Professor's Sprout, McGonagall and Dumbledore through his 'frenzied' escape.

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Fall waned to winter, and eventually the Christmas festivities began. Harry once again surprised his friends by his knowledge of the holiday. Hermione, Tonks, Susan and Neville all went home for the holidays. Harry was the only first year Hufflepuff that had stayed at the castle as Sephiria and Belze were currently on an extended mission in South America that Harry would not be privy to until the summer, when he could discuss his year with them more in depth and return to his real training to become a Time Guardian for a few months.

The day of Christmas, Harry found that he had many more presents than he had anticipated. He got a few gifts from Train and a few of the other Numbers, and Sephiria and Belze had purchased him a long trench coat that ended just below his knees. It only had three straps to close the front, but was not designed to close the coat completely. The shoulders had a thicker leather sown in, almost as if they were to have something over them. There was a massive black hood that when he pulled it on, covered his face completely. The hood had been charmed to allow the glow from his Mystic Eyes to leak through, giving him an ethereal appearance with it on. There was a short note from Sephiria and Belze explaining the need for his coat to hide his true identity from the underworld circles, as they wished for him to become something that struck fear into their enemies hearts. The plan was that as time went on, and Harry began to take missions for Chronos, the mask he would wear would make him appear to be an actual god of death. That, however, was a few years away just yet though.

His friend's gifts were very interesting to him, as he had never actually received a gift that was not practical. There was a strange, silvery cloak that came with a note telling him that the cloak had once belonged to James Potter, his biological father. Harry was none too interested by it with his parents giving him his new trench coat, and put it back in the box to put it aside and check into it later.

Neville had gotten him a book about the history of the wizarding sport known as Quidditch. Harry set that aside for the time being, fully intending to read it later. Harry had seen how Neville did in Herbology, and so had found him two books on almost all of the plants known to the wizarding and mundane worlds, and quite a bit of their respective uses. Harry had managed to get Neville a badge in the shape of the Longbottom crest charmed to act as an international emergency portkey. Harry left it with the note to Neville to keep it on him at all times.

Tonks had gotten him an intermediate level book on utilizing his metamorphagus abilities, and while Harry found that he could change his hair color and length, he had yet to be able to change facial features. While he was flipping through the book, a picture fell out. He picked it up, and found a black-haired girl looking back at him. Her violet eyes stared playfully at him, giving him a bit of a blush as her right index finger came up in front of her lips in the classic shushing motion. Her cheekbones were almost aristocratically high, her skin almost a pale white, but her face appeared more round than he had expected. He turned the picture over, reading the note on the back.

 _Wotcher Harry! Hope your Christmas is good this year._

 _You_ did _ask a while back about what I really looked like, but I was a bit embarrassed by your request. Keep it a secret, ok?_

 _Love, Tonks._

Harry smirked, flipping the picture back over and placed it back into the book as the picture of Tonks winked at him, intending to keep the picture in a safe place for his friend. Harry was glad that he had been able to find that old book about the beginnings of the metamorph in his family's library back in Japan to give to her. He also, on Sephiria's insistence, bought her a necklace with a small ruby hanging from it. They had taken it to one of Chrono's magus researchers, and crafted it into an international emergency portkey.

Hermione's present was as unique as Harry's to her was. She had given him an intermediate book on wizard healing. Harry knew some of the information in the book, but was intrigued by what he still had yet to learn. He had gotten Hermione a book about advanced Transfiguration, as she seemed particularly interested in the subject. Also, he got her a gold necklace that matched Tonks and Susan's but had an ocean blue sapphire in it instead of a ruby with the same enchantments as the others.

Susan got Harry a book about the Wizengamot and a little bit about the various laws that existed in Magical Britain. Harry found this to be just as useful as his normal gifts as he knew that he would need to take up his position as Lord Potter when he reached the age of 15, as he was the last Potter. He chuckled at the stately robes that each Wizengamot member wore. He had also gotten Susan a charmed necklace that matched Tonks and Hermione's. Susan's however had a vibrant emerald in its place.

He had not told the girls nor Neville the purpose behind the necklaces and family crest. Harry had a sneaking suspicion that he was going to be targeted by an as of yet unknown foe. Harry, after his extensive search into the rise and fall of Lord Voldemort, could not shake the feeling that he had not truly been killed the night he turned his wand on Harry and his parents. And, studying tactics with Belze and Sephiria had shown him how easy a powerful, moral fighter could be brought to his knees if his friend's lives were in danger. He would not make the mistake of allowing his friends and their families to be used against him.

Harry took to roaming the castle when he was bored waiting for his friends to come back. The silvery cloak he had been given was an invisibility cloak, much to Harry's delight. He continued to think about how easy magic was going to make his job when he finally was given full Guardian status.

Harry thought back to when the Chronos Elders had assigned him his current number of Zero. Sephiria explained it to him just before they went to King's Cross station. "Your abilities are like the number zero. They hold no value to Chronos yet, but at this point they have an infinite number of possibilities." She had told him. He was still shocked that the Elders had given him a number, even though it was only supposed to be temporary. He would not receive an orichalcum weapon until the Elders approved him to be a full Guardian.

A few days before the four were scheduled to come back, Harry was exploring the castle and practicing his stealth capabilities by seeing how well he could hide in plain sight from Mr. Filch and Mrs. Norris, his cat that the caretaker used like a bloodhound.

So far, Harry did not even need to worry. The cat was very good at detecting students out and about after curfew, but she could not see through his invisibility cloak, nor smell him after he learned the scent canceling charm. The incident that led to his need to learn that charm involved using his enhanced muscle structure to jump to the darkened rafters of a classroom to avoid being caught.

While he was exploring, he happened across a room that had a giant mirror in it. As Harry looked into the mirror to see if he could be seen, he saw himself being awarded full Guardian status, and also being given a massive Orichalcum o-katana that had runes engraved in it. The scene changed, and then his older self was with Neville and the three girls at an unknown restaurant. Neville was congratulating him, and after he stepped back from the half hug with Neville, while the girls each took turns kissing him on the cheeks, making his future self turn to a very light shade of red.

Harry snorted, amused at this older version of himself. He then noticed two people in the restaurant that were discussing something with Sephiria and Belze. As he focused on the two unknown's, they turned to face the scene of older Harry and his friends. Harry blanched. The untidy raven hair on the male, and the startlingly familiar green eyes of the red-headed female as they smiled at Harry's group told him that deep down, he still wished he could have met his biological parents.

Unconsciously, he walked towards the mirror, reaching up with his right hand and tried to touch the image of his mother and father happily chatting with Sephiria and Belze while all four looked at Harry with pride. Disappointment flashed through him for a bit when he only touched the cold of the mirror.

He did not realize how long he had stood there as the scene continued to change, showing him being promoted after Sephiria retired with Belze, until he heard a small cough behind him. Before his adversary could even think of erecting a shield, Harry had already turned, moving to his left, giving him more space if he needed it, drawn his wand from his quick release arm holster, and wordlessly cast a disarming hex at the assailant in the shadows.

"Show yourself!" Harry's voice was hard as steel, even though he was berating himself for letting his senses relax. _More training, I think, is in order for this slip,_ he thought as he snagged the wand out of the air from his opponent.

Harry turned the wand around on at its previous owner. He saw the strange design of the wood on the wand, and began to wonder who crafted it. The knobbed sections of the wand told Harry that this wand was in particular a very old wand.

Harry caught the outlandish robes of the other person in the room, immediately recognizing the shocked face of the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, staring at him like a fish out of water, his mouth noticeable even amongst his long silver beard.

"Professor! I'm sorry about that!" Harry quickly walked forward and put the strange older wand back into Dumbledore's hands. Harry, however, did not put his wand away either, wary of the feelings his gut was giving him about the sudden appearance of the headmaster.

It took a few moments for the aging Headmaster to shake off his shock at what Harry had done. "Yes…" Dumbledore was lost as how to proceed, "Well, no harm done my boy, no harm done. That will teach me to let my guard down. A friend of mine would berate me on the benefits of the phrase 'Constant Vigilance' if he had seen what just happened." Harry saw a flash of anger flit through the old man's face before it quickly got replaced with the old man's usual smile as he put the wand away into one of his enormous sleeves. Slowly, Harry put his own wand back into the slot in the robes he was wearing, not wanting to tip off the old man that Harry was much more prepared than a normal first year.

"How can I help you Professor?" Harry asked, his gut still giving him that uneasy feeling about the room's other occupant.

"I see that you, like many before you, have found out the wonders of the Mirror of Erised. I am curious, but have you figured out what it does?"

"It shows me my heart's desire, if what I saw was correct." Harry told him, glancing back to see his 4 parents waving at him.

"If I don't pry too much, young Harry, what do you see in the mirror?" Harry sensed that this was a multi-layered probe into his own state of mind. He would need to carefully consider his answer.

To give himself time, he looked down at his feet, shuffling them, making the Headmaster believe he was embarrassed by what he saw. His mind quickly flashed to the end, and told Dumbledore a small truth. "I see my parents' sir. They are looking at me with pride."

Dumbledore immediately switched the tone to one of sorrow. "I'm sorry my boy. I knew your father and mother very well. It is a shame that Voldemort turned his wand on them. I hope that you realize that they are proud of you. You are shaping up to be a remarkable young wizard."

Harry allowed a smile to cross his face, just before he felt a sudden tendril probe into his mind as he accidentally made eye contact with Dumbledore. He immediately re-enforced his occulumency shields, hoping that they were enough to subtly guide Dumbledore to the memory's that weren't as important. Memories such as the nights he spent studying alone in the library, or the early abuse at the Dursley's.

Dumbledore seemed to pause at the early abuse, and that hesitation allowed Harry to wall up the rest of the memories surrounding his adoptive family. Harry couldn't stop the feeling of disgust that crept up his spine as Dumbledore seemed to be glad at the memories of the abuse that left the marks on his back.

The feeling of another presence in his mind seemed to last forever, with Harry continually re-enforcing his mental shields around the more dangerous memories of Chronos and his pseudo-family, until he finally felt it recede. He kept his face impassive, but mentally breathed a sigh of relief.

Dumbledore seemed to collect his thoughts, trying to hide his look of glee as he had witnessed the beatings the Dursley's had given him that had scarred up part of his back permanently. Harry saw some of the puzzle pieces he had from the old man start to fit together. _He wanted me to be abused, but for what purpose?_ Harry could feel some magic begin to bleed through his body, subconsciously preparing to bolt from the Headmaster if he made the wrong move. Harry may be stubborn, but he knew when to flee from a fight.

"Harry, I would recommend that you do not seek out this mirror again. It will be moved to a safer location after tonight. You are not the only one who has found amazement at this mirror, and many before you have wasted away in front of it. I would recommend getting back to your dormitory for the evening." The aged Headmaster turned away and left the room.

Harry stayed standing for a few minutes, then felt the wave of exhaustion hit him as he collapsed to his knees, the strain of redirecting the attack much harder than he had thought. After he got his breathing back under control, he stood up, chastising himself for looking the old coot in the eyes.

 _Got to tell Mum about this…_ Harry was now beginning to wonder who he could trust among the staff. Professor McGonagall seemed to be all right, but that would be too obvious. Also, she was too close to Professor Dumbledore for his liking.

 _Which would leave me to approach Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick, Professor Vector or Professor Snape with my job offer. Hmmm… Could try all four?_ Harry wished to enlist several Hogwarts Staff members to act as spies for Chronos, but he had to be careful about who and how he approached them. Tonight's attack on him proved that he would need to be very careful with who he trusted among them.

Harry, under his biological father's cloak, made his way back to the dorm, trying to solve the puzzle of which Professor's to approach about this offer. As he climbed into bed a few hours after starting to read his quidditch book, he still had not come to a decision.

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Soon after Tonks returned, Harry and the girls were introduced to Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, and Alicia Spinnet from Gryffindor. They chatted about playing quidditch and helped Harry and Hermione understand the sport. After the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw flying lesson near the beginning of the school year, Harry had found he loved flying, while Hermione and susan preferred their feet on the ground. He, the three Gryffindor chasers, Tonks and Neville would try to find time to head down to the quidditch pitch and have the chasers put them each through their paces, even though it was cold. The older girls helped teach the younger ones with them the warming charm. Tonks and Harry were exceptional at all of the drills the girls were teaching them, while Neville preferred to block the goals. Hermione and Susan liked to watch their friends from the bleachers, and both agreed that they preferred the ground.

The group of friends continued to have fun together as the months wore on. Eventually, Katie asked Harry about his workout he did, before blushing as Angelina and Alicia teased her that she liked to watch Harry get sweaty.

Harry, not quite understanding the nature of their teasing, offered to let them see the workout. Angelina and Katie were ecstatic, but Alicia refused to be up so early, even if it was to help train for quidditch. Eventually, the two chasers worked with Harry and he began to teach them his own personal style of martial arts that he had created by using three separate arts and combining them. Tonks, Hermione, and Susan eventually saw the usefulness of martial arts after Katie and Angelina had their first sparring match with Harry.

Harry, having had Sephiria and Belze train him, realized that he would need to start small, and work his way up with the girls, instead of just throwing them into the martial arts as he had been. He started them on Kata's explaining the purpose of each strike as he went through them. All of his friends would ask how he knew all of these forms, and he informed them that he was home schooled by Sephiria, and the training usually ran for 12-16 hours a day. The physical and practical would be broken up with the theory, to offset each other and not work Harry completely into the ground.

Every single one of them were shocked at the amount of time Harry spent learning. Even Hermione was flabber gasted at his training schedule. He could not help but smirk at them as they tried to pick up their jaws.

"You really don't work that hard, do you Harry?" Katie hesitantly asked him.

Harry's smirk widened to almost Cheshire level, keeping his eyes locked on Katie's brown ones as he told her, "I do indeed. My mother intends me to succeed her. That includes knowing everything she has learned, as well as keeping up on the different branches of the company."

"Wow. _That_ is crazy." Angelina voiced aloud what all the other girls were thinking about their friend.

Harry merely smiled, just as he started the sparring match between Hermione and Susan, and also motioning to Tonks and Katie to start theirs as well.

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Eventually, the diminutive Charms Professor, Flitwick, heard about Harry teaching his friends to fight. When confronted on it, Harry pointed out that he did not wish for his friends to ever not be able to get out of a bad situation. Flitwick, stunned by the debate he had with an 11 year old about combat, eventually agreed to help Harry train in magical dueling.

Harry, knowing that dueling and fighting were vastly different things, asked the Professor if he would be willing to teach him how to survive. Flitwick was yet again shocked by his request, but conceded to the young boy that surviving was quite a bit different from dueling.

So, on weekends that the professor had free, he would work with Harry on combat tactics and fighting in the magical world as he understood it. Flitwick was delighted by Harry's intelligence as they studied the tactics used by the Death Eaters in the last war against Voldemort, as well as Dark Lord Grindelwald's Knights of Wallachia. Harry had to admit he was much more impressed with Grindelwald then Voldemort, as Grindelwald understood subtlety, but had to admit that Voldemort understood fear pretty well. When people refused to say the name of a monster, it becomes a legend. Harry, with his limited knowledge of Magecraft, would not have been surprised if Voldemort would become a Heroic Spirit after his death.

Flitwick, being of Goblin blood, had heard of Heroic Spirirts, but had only heard stories of good ones, such as King Arthur and rumors of Gilgamesh of Uruk. He posed his question to his student. "Harry, what do you mean, Voldemort could be a Heroic Spirit? I was under the impression that only good people could become a Heroic Spirit?"

"Well, good truly is in the eye of the beholder, Professor." Harry glanced up from his current scroll. Flitwick's expression was gobsmacked, but he waved his right hand and motioned for Harry to continue.

"Well, for example, Voldemort and Grindelwald. We both know that those two men are vile, twisted human beings but to their followers, what are they?"

Flitwick connected the dots quickly, "They are, sadly, revered by them."

"Exactly. Heroic Spirits are neither good nor bad, they just are. Heroic Spirits are people who have legends told about them many years after they have died. Which, with Voldemort, is a terrifying reality that he may be entered into the Throne of Heroes and may have become a Heroic Spirit, isn't it?" Flitwick shuddered at the thought that Voldemort could continue his tirade even after death from the dimension of the Throne.

Both sat in silence, Harry continued on with his reading, while Flitwick processed the information he had been given from the young child. He was almost bubbling with excitement on bringing this information back to the Goblins, before he realized that Harry should not know of Magecraft yet.

"Harry, I have another question. You do not have to answer, but my curiosity begs me to ask."

Harry looked up to his favorite professor, outwardly smiling but inwardly worried about what information to reveal.

"How is it you are familiar with Magecraft, especially at your age?" Flitwick did not blink as he asked this question, almost appearing to try to see through him.

Harry thought back to his first introduction to Magecraft, when he had been introduced to Emiya Kitsurugu, a man known as the Magus Killer, who would take freelance contracts from Chronos's Enforcement Division. He had been a participant in the recently completed fourth Holy Grail War when Harry had been introduced to the man.

Sephiria had been called to Fuyuki City following the completion of some type of tournament called the Holy Grail War to meet with Emiya and discuss something about a retirement plan a month before Harry had started Hogwarts. From what Harry had gleaned from Sephiria later, the Holy Grail War was a contest created for the explicit purpose to of granting the winner's wish. It involved 7 magus, who each would summon a Heroic Spirit as a class of Servant and then forcing the Servants to fight, sacrificing all of them to help power the Grail. Harry wasn't quite certain if that was entirely possible, but at the time took Sephiria's word for it.

Harry was introduced to Kitsurugu's adopted son, Emiya Shirou. Shirou was tall for his age, about 125 centimeters, with light auburn colored hair and gold eyes. They hit it off brilliantly together. Shirou was about 7 or so, and was timid at first, but Harry was able to coax him out of his shell and have fun around the neighborhood. They met a young girl down the street who was being harassed by someone who claimed to be her brother, but there were no common features between the two that Harry could tell.

After they had scared the jerk away, Harry checked her over to make sure she was ok. He saw that she had dark violet eyes, shoulder-length dark purple hair, with a ribbon keeping it out of her face. She was relatively quiet, but eventually, like Harry had managed to do with Shirou, she was at least smiling as they played at the nearby park. It was then they learned that her name was Matou Sakura, only daughter of the Matou family.

A few hours passed as they played, and an ancient looking man came looking for Sakura. For a very brief second, her smile faltered, before she waved goodbye to Harry and Shirou and left with the man who introduced himself as her grandfather. Harry and Shirou decided to head back to Shirou's home before nightfall hit.

"Shirou-kun," Harry drew the younger boy's attention, "What do you think of Sakura-chan?"

Shirou's face surpassed his hair color in brightness. Harry smirked at him, but did not wait for him to answer before continuing on. "I worry for her. I would consider her and you my friends. I was wondering if you would continue to watch out for her while I am away?"

"I will, Sempai!" Shirou's completely serious face brought a smile to Harry's.

"Good. Now, let's get back, before Mom and your dad get angry!" Harry took off like a bullet, slowing down just enough to keep Shirou in sight as they neared his home. They reached it in about 4 minutes, Harry merely panting and Shirou doubled over and gasping for air. Sephiria was outside standing on the porch stoop with Kitsurugu.

They had finished their conversation from earlier, and were merely waiting on the children to come back.

"Come Harry. We must be going now." Sephiria ordered as she nodded to Kitsurugu and began to leave his home.

"I'll write to you later Shirou, and remember to keep an eye on Sakura!" Harry waved as he turned and followed his mother, leaving behind the still wheezing Shirou who waved from his hunched over state. Harry nodded to Kitsurugu, who returned it with a smile, and then left the compound.

On the plane ride back to London, Sephiria had explained that Kitsurugu was what was called a magus, someone who studies and practices Magecraft. Harry was told that various parts of Chronos researched Magecraft itself, instead of magic. Harry himself expressed an interest in it, especially since it could be performed by certain types of Mundane humans as long as they could access their bodies internal 'circuits'. He had questioned Sephiria about the difference between his magic and Magecraft, and Sephiria explained that normally a person is either a Wizard or a Magus. Sephiria considered herself was a low-level Magus, only studying runic systems and wards, as her circuits were not fully developed and had been damaged by the genetic manipulations done when she was young.

A wizard was taught that they have a magical core, where as a Magus was taught that a person had circuits and were trained accordingly. Wizards used an organic focus to access and manipulate their power core, like a wand or staff with part of a magical creature inside, while a Magus was taught to use their circuits with out a focus at first. Over time, the Magus would start to create a focus to assist in their higher spellcasting. A magus's focus was not limited to organic creatures, and Harry knew of a family in Japan, the Tohsakas, that specialized in crystallizing their Magecraft in jewels.

Harry shook himself from the memories, seeing that Professor Flitwick was staring at him, still waiting patiently for an answer.

"My mother takes me across the globe on different business meetings with different clients. On one such occasion, I met a young man who I quickly became friends with. His father was a Magus, and could sense the magic flowing through me. He pulled us aside and we had a conversation about accidental magic I had done in the past. Mum was glad for an explanation about the strange things I could do." Harry thought his lie sounded convincing enough, and vague enough that if this conversation did make it back to the Headmaster, it would not be enough to give too much away.

"Intriguing. I myself was introduced to the concept straight out of Hogwarts, when I fought against a Magus in a dueling tournament. I remember that the duel only ended because the magus ran out of jewels to use. I was only a minute or so from passing out from magical exhaustion myself."

Harry asked, "Was it a Tohsaka you ran up against?"

Flitwick was startled by the question. "Yes, I do in fact believe she was. To this date, I have only had a couple other fights as strenuous as that one. May I ask how you knew of her?"

"Oh that's easy! Even from my limited knowledge of Magecraft, I know of only one family that specializes in Jewelcraft, and that's the Tohsaka's." Harry smiled at Flitwick.

"Indeed. I never had the aptitude to learn the theory behind Magecraft, unfortunately. But, the system was intriguing to me."

"Professor, I have a serious question I would like to ask of you. However, I must know something before I can even begin to tell you this."

Flitwick glanced up and flicked his wand towards the door, casting a privacy charm on it silently. "Mr. Potter, this room is now secure from prying ears." Flitwick was curious about what the young man would tell him, so was willing to give the benefit of the doubt to him.

"Thank you sir. I need to know how you honestly feel about Headmaster Dumbledore?"

The Charms Professor did not see that question coming. He reeled for a bit, before collecting his thoughts and giving voice to them. "Well, lately, I have been quite disillusioned with our Headmaster. He has been making strange decisions lately involving our students safety." Harry mentally filed that comment away for later introspection. "He was once a great man and wizard, but I have always been somewhat wary of individuals that hold that much power, especially politically."

Harry mentally weighed the odds and found that even though Flitwick doubted Headmaster Dumbledore, at this point, he could not be brought onto Chrono's folds just yet. So, Harry decided to start planting the seeds of doubt he would need to get Flitwick to his side.

"Can I be certain that what I am about to tell you will not reach the Headmaster?"

"I can, unless it is a threat to my students. Then I am sorry, but I will need to bring it to the Headmaster regardless of your wishes."

"I understand, Professor. I merely wished to explain how and why I took the name of my adoptive mother, instead of my birth parents." Harry then began to tell his professor about his early childhood, and how his adoptive mother had saved him that night in Japan 5 years ago. How he had been adopted into her family and she was training him to take over when she retired.

Flitwick prided himself on being hard to shock, but for the second time this evening, Harry had managed to do so. He was appalled at what the Dursley's had done to one of his students, angered that no one appeared to help the boy, and saddened that the child of his favorite student, Lily Potter, had been treated so abysmally. He was glad that Harry's adoptive mother had found him that night, and appeared to be a warrior of some renown, if she was brought in by the Burial Agency of the Church to help during an Apostle hunt. Harry quickly deflected the train of thought away from what she actually does by saying that she is a master swordswoman and continually practices on top of being on the Board of Directors for a multinational company.

As the session between master and apprentice concluded, Harry noticed that Professor Flitwick was in a pensive mood and seemed to be trying to calculate a long Arithmetic formula. Harry hoped that the professor was not as familiar with his mother's surname as he was about Magecraft.

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The year continued on as normal from that point. Harry taught Hermione and Tonks to play chess, explaining that the original game of chess was based on war simulations. Angelina and Alicia were not too thrilled by it, but stuck around as Hermione, Tonks, Susan, Katie and Neville would alternate between chess and homework. Harry did not realize it, but he was beginning to drive the girls and boy barmy as none of them liked the constant moving about.

After an intense verbal debate between the others and himself, Harry backed off of the chess portion of the training, realizing he was beginning to push them a bit as much as Sephiria pushed him.

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The end of the year arrived, and nothing spectacular of note happened until one night two weeks before term ended, Harry was exploring the castle again before he fell unconscious from a spell that had hit him from behind.

When he was roughly brought to, he noticed that he was petrified and unable to move, and seemed to have been dumped on the ground unceremoniously near a familiar mirror.

 _Oh great, first time I forget the invisibility cloak, and I get caught before the end of the year,_ was the sarcastic thought that ran through his head as he watched the no longer stuttering professor, Quirrell, stare into the mirror.

"I see myself presenting the stone to my master, but why does it not show me the location of the stone!?" Quirrell just about screamed at the mirror.

 _Out! Get out immediately! Something is very wrong with this man,_ was the thought that was cycling through his head. He tried to break the body bind, but found he was barely able to turn his eyeballs. With that knowledge, he waited for whatever Quirrell had planned, already deciding to attack as soon as the bind was lifted.

A quiet, almost whisper-like voice then said "The boy. Use the boy!" Before Harry could even begin to wonder where the voice came from, he was levitated to stand in front of the mirror. However, once he was upright, he noticed a tingling feeling in his magical core. As he focused on it, he could feel the sensation continue through to his extremities. Once the feeling passed his hands, he felt the fingers move just a fraction of an inch.

 _Stall,_ now went through his mind. _Stall long enough to run!_

"Boy!" The professor yelled, "What do you see in the mirror?"

Harry watched as his reflection winked at him, and then pulled a blood-red stone from his pocket, before putting it back into the pocket he grabbed it from. Once the mirror Harry put the stone into his pocket, real Harry felt a new weight in his pocket, mentally screaming at the simplicity of the trap for whatever this object was.

Quick thinking lead him to regurgitate what he had told the other dangerous old man months ago. The story of his parents gazing upon him with pride. The professor screamed, throwing Harry backwards unto the floor. Colliding with the stone made Harry realize that he could once again begin to move, magic leaking through what he was beginning to believe was his circuits negating the spell that Quirrell had him under.

As the teacher turned back to the mirror, Harry immediately rolled to push himself up, preparing to bolt for the door he could see from the reflection in the mirror. Before he could enact his plan and was getting his legs ready to coil underneath him, he heard the same whisper like voice say "Let me speak to the child, servant, and make him understand."

"But Master, you are not strong enough!" Quirrell shouted as he finally noticed the position Harry was in. He spun and cast a dark red curse at Harry, who dodged, which was good as the spell had tore up the stone where he had been standing very well.

Harry completed his roll, once more dodging that same red curse, and managed to get behind one of the pillars that stood around the room.

"Stop! I must speak to the boy!" Harry heard as he mentally gauged the distance to the door, knowing that at the speed that Quirrell was casting, even with his re-enforced speed, it would be a very close call to try to make it through the door. Harry took the safer route, and stayed behind the pillar he was, knowing that if he was injured before he made it to the door, that Quirrell and his passenger would have that much easier time killing him.

Quirrell, Harry noticed, had begun to unwind his turban with his free hand, the other hand occupied with keeping the wand on the pillar Harry was hiding behind. Harry watched from behind the pillar as the turban fell from the professor's bald head.

Through the mirror, Harry could see a face sticking out of the back of Quirrell's head. A face that had slit like nostrils and eyes that were red as blood.

"Harry Potter," The face whispered, "See what I have become? Mere shadow and vapor, because of your mudblood mother."

"I find it funny that you call her a mudblood, yet she defeated the most powerful Dark Lord to date." Harry shot back, not allowing the thing in the back of Quirrell's head to insult his birth mother. He leaned a bit out from behind the pillar, before the red spell from before tore off a chunk of the pillar.

"I was not defeated, merely set back in my plans. With the Philosopher's Stone, I could be back in a body and could begin again. I could even bring your parents back, Harry. Join me, and the world will tremble under our banner."

Harry chuckled, stopping the tyrant from continuing in his tirade. "You really think I'm that gullible? You'd off me the first chance you got!" Harry was once again gauging the distance to the door, deciding that the little bit of Magecraft he knew would have to suffice. He had learned from Sephiria how to re-enforce his body, a skill useful to Enforcers of the Mage's Association, headquartered in a place called the Clock Tower in London; Executors, the enforcement arm of the Church's Burial Agency, and the Time Guardians of Chronos. He felt the tingling start from his chest, and then move out towards his fingers. The re-enforcement should allow him to withstand a glancing hit from one of those red spells, and hopefully get Harry out and away from the creature in the room.

"Of course not, young Potter, once you give me that stone in your pocket, I will show you how I plan to take the world and make it our domain, free from the pollution of the mudbloods and muggles!" Harry tensed up, hearing that Voldemort already knew about the stone in his pocket, and then felt rage encompass him as he took offense for Hermione and Tonks.

He took off like a shot, the re-enforcement making him even faster than he anticipated. He heard the pillars just behind him get destroyed by Quirrell as he cast the spell just that much slower than Harry was running.

He managed to make to the door, jumping up, intending to use his re-enforced body to smash through the wooden door and continue on his run. It would seem, though, that at that moment, his luck ran out, the door held in place a fraction of a second before giving way in a shower of wooden shards, but that fraction of a second was enough for one of the red spells to glance off of his left side, sending him careening into the stonework on the other side of the door.

He tried to roll, but found that his legs were no longer responding. _DAMNIT!_ he thought as he tried to drag himself through the room to the other door he had entered into. He heard Quirrell enter the room behind him, causing Harry to flip over onto his back and reach for his wand in his robes.

Unfortunately, Quirrell summoned the wand away from Harry, leaving him almost defenseless. Quirrell's smug look as he looked upon what he assumed to be a hapless 11 year old sent Harry from the blinding heat he was feeling to a chill that would have frozen an ocean completely. Harry knew he was not going to be walking out of this room alive, but he knew he could prevent the monster that took his birth parents from him from getting the stone.

He pulled his glasses off, willing the eyes to not actualize until Quirrell was closer. The DADA teacher walked forward, putting both Harry's wand and his own into a pocket in his robe. He kneeled down next to the child, reaching for the pocket indicated by his master, and that is when Harry struck. He reached out and clasped the hand of the professor, faintly hearing a sound like the sizzling from a skillet come from the contact. The scar on his head almost seemed to be on fire the instant Harry had grabbed Quirrell's hand. Ignoring the agony he was in for a split second, he pulled the man closer, allowing his eyes to actualize, changing from their emerald green to the steel-Grey mirror. He snaked his pocket knife out of his sleeve, snapping the blade open with a flick of his wrist and severed the major death line that covered Quirrell's chest, killing him almost instantly.

The older man stared into the ice-cold spinel colored eyes, the shock of what had happened etched into his face permanently. His lower body uncoiled backwards as Harry pulled his wand from the dead man's robe. The top half of the professor, however, landed partially on Harry and partially the floor. He pushed the top half off of himself, shuddering as he did so. He very painfully turned himself over, not able to see the damage from the spell, but knowing that he was injured severely, from the amount of blood pooled underneath him and the loss of feeling in his legs. He started to drag himself towards the other door in the room.

He managed to get to a room that seemed to have a giant chess board, hearing several voices shout out his name, one he could swear was his head of house along with his mentor and the deputy Headmistress, before he succumbed to the darkness.

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The smell was something that Harry was familiar with when his senses returned. The disinfectant seered through his nostrils and brought him to the waking world. He lifted his eyelids just enough to see the aged form of the Headmaster, as well as the deputy Headmistress, the shorter stature of his mentor, and his Head of house at the foot of the bed, conversing in low tones.

He faked shocking awake, breathing in a quick breath and snapping open his eyelids, looking around in mock fear, trying to push himself up. He subtly reached over and picked up his glasses and put them on before he lost control of his mystic eyes.

"Calm down, young one, calm down." The school nurse, Pomfrey, pushed on his shoulder to keep him in bed. He looked up at the aging matron, her blue eyes promising pain if he did not follow her instructions.

He snapped his head back to look at the teachers. Dumbledore and McGonagall on the left side of his bed, and Flitwick and Sprout on his right behind the healer.

"Harry, my boy, how are you feeling?" The centenarian asked him.

"Got a headache, sir, and my lower back is itchy." As he mentioned his headache, he felt the nurse push a potion into his hand. He eyed it suspiciously, before looking back at the nurse.

"It is a muscle regrowth potion. The spell you were hit with barely missed your spine. Even magic cannot fix spine damage, Mr. Arks." She assured him.

Harry downed the potion instead of correcting her that the spell actually did indeed nick his spinal cord, but knew he could not bring that up to her without awkward questions.

The matron waved her wand a few times, told the group that he was healing perfectly, and then left the group of professors to question him.

Dumbledore started the interrogation, "Harry, what happened down in the room with the mirror?"

Harry told them of being stunned, and waking up in front of the mirror while Quirrell talked to himself. He glossed over freeing himself, and that the Professor must have felt a child was not a danger to himself. He told them of the parasite Voldemort coming out of the back of Quirrell's head. He told them that he tried to run, and thought he had made it before one of those red spells hit him in the back.

He quickly made up an excuse as to how Quirrell was cut in half. He told the professors that he held his wand on Quirrell, and with all the power he could muster, thought of the word CUT. A bright red beam left his wand and hit the professor.

Satisfied, the Headmaster left, while McGonagall looked at him with sorrow. Sprout told him good job, and then left after the Deputy of the school.

Flitwick began to discuss situational awareness with him, before seeing that Harry was drifting off to sleep. He excused himself, and left Harry to the tender mercies of Morpheus.

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The girls, on the other hand, immediately tore into him when they were allowed to see him. After they took a breath from ranting, Hermione broke the mold and grabbed him in a crushing hug and started crying. Before he could stop it, Katie, Tonks and Susan joined her in trying to squeeze the life out of him.

He held them, somewhat at a loss, until they calmed down. After that, he asked them about classes he had missed for the past 2 days. Hermione immediately began to bring out her notes, which caused Susan to cock an eyebrow at him. Katie and Tonks also caught onto his game of getting the conversation away from what happened by distracting Hermione. Tonks glared at him as Hermione finished pulling out her notes, while Harry just shrugged at her, a small smirk on his lips.

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The now expanded group of friends were introducing each other to their parents at the train station before heading home for the summer. Neville had been apparated away by his grandmother before they even left platform 9¾. Andromeda and Ted Tonks were intrigued to meet the other metamorph their daughter had talked about. Daniel and Melinda Granger were intrigued to meet their daughters first friend. Jonathan and Cassandra Bell were also looking forward to meeting their daughters new friend. Amelia Bones merely wished to see how the son of her friends was doing.

They chatted together a bit, the adults taking note of how Harry dressed and acted. Unbeknownst to Ted and Daniel, Harry could tell from the way they held themselves that they had been soldiers of some sort.

Eventually, they left Kings Cross station and walked to the car park. Tonks was the first to ask what she saw was wrong. "Harry, were are your parents?" That statement immediately caught the attention of the adults.

"They are on a business trip in South America. They will not be back until early next week."

Amelia spoke up. "Then how are you getting home Harry?"

Harry glanced back towards the car park. "My ride is already here." Everyone turned to see a Rolls Royce waiting at the car park. Next to the car was a tall, darker skinned man with a chinstrap beard and a goatee. He was bald beyond that. He wore a suit that matched the one that Harry wore, but with a different color scheme. He had a dark purple oxford shirt with a solid gold tie. He was wearing small, rectangle-shaped sunglasses and had a small cigar in his mouth.

As they approached him, everyone saw that on his left temple there was a tattooed V. Dan and Ted both were put on edge on the way the man stood, almost forgotten instincts warning them of the danger that hid in the guise of this man.

"Hello Nizer." Harry called to him from the front of the group. The girls remembered the name Nizer from some of the stories Harry told them.

"Hey kid. I see you brought friends today, huh?" The left side of his lips curled up in a smirk, while the right side kept the small cigar lodged in place.

"Indeed I did." Harry then proceeded to introduce Nizer to the rest of the adults and the girls with them.

There was a tense moment when Ted and Dan were introduced to Nizer, but that swiftly passed. Nizer was very good at being able to blend into crowds and acting like a normal human being, unlike Kranz and Baldorias. The girls made Harry promise to write, and he advised that he would send his post through muggle mail, as he did not have an owl just yet. His plan was to get one this summer, as a way to keep up with Neville and Susan. Tonks, Katie and Hermione all had addresses he could write to through a normal Royal Mail letter.

After saying good bye to everyone and the group began to split up, Nizer opened the door to the back of the Rolls Royce, indicating Harry to get in. Nizer went around the car and slid into the driver seat. He turned the car over, and preceded to leave the car park.

"How was your first year at school kiddo?" Nizer asked as he pulled the car into the so far sparse traffic.

"Interesting, to say the least. I will be giving a full debrief to you and the other Numbers when Sephiria and Belze return." Harry told him.

Nizer nodded. Both fell silent, as was Nizer's preferred choice when in a car. Harry looked out the window, catching site of the busy streets, wondering how this summer and the next school year would go.


End file.
